THE title of this article carries us back to the bright morning of the world, and forward to scenes far lovelier than those of Eden. Rejecting the facts presented in the brief documents which relate to the primal condition and fall of man, we become at once enveloped in impervious darkness. No effort of the intellect can explain the past, or form the slightest satisfactory conjecture as to the future. Scepticism in every form stands in antagonism to the most cherished convictions of the noblest spirits of all ages. Men have ever talked and sung of the good time past and the good time coming. However we may differ in our exposition of some of the biblical details, Eden is the only exponent of both philosophy and history. Without it, the traditions, thoughts, aspirations, and life of our race are inexplicable. In Eden we trace the first development of that defection from rectitude which has led to all our woe. We meet a prophecy of how Infinite Love intends to restore the fallen. We have no data from which we can form an opinion as to the changes VOL. IV.-NEW Series, No. 2. which the physical creation may have undergone in consequence of man's disobedience. It would be therefore vain to speculate. One thing is evident, that prior to the fall, the whole earth must have been a scene of unsullied beauty. During the progress of untold ages the Divine Architect had been rearing it as a fit habitation for beings but a little lower than the angels. New objects of ambition, new forms of thought, and a government distinct from His own, and hostile to it having been introduced, all these had necessarily to be met by revolutions in the material, as well as in the moral world. For the present we must confine our attention to man's expulsion from the earthly paradise, and the merciful provision which has been made for his restoration to the Divine favour. The garden, there can be no question, was a natural temple, a sacred enclosure, where God. communed with our first parents. There were furnished special manifestations of His glory, preparatory, as we conceive, to still brighter manifestations in a higher sphere to which our race would have been translated had they remained obedient and faithful subjects of the Great King. Th Divine administration is a grand system of agencies and instrumentalities. The whole universe, whether of matter or mind, contributes illustrations of this statement. So in Eden, while life immortal was to be man's heritage, on the conditions proposed, immortality was to be secured by eating of the Tree of Life.' Does this arrangement contradict any of the analogies of nature? While man's life is made to depend on the food of which he partakes, and while there are medicaments which have often restored the sinking frame to health and vigour, why may we not suppose that the tree of life possessed properties which had the power of preserving the body from disease, decay, and death? May not the Divine permission to partake of the fruit of this tree have also been a pledge to unfallen man of eternal life-and eternal life associated with the noblest development of his faculties and the highest bliss? May he not have eaten of it sacramentally, while holding special fellowship with his Maker, and musing on His unutterable glory and majesty? But the spirit of rebellion crept into the human mind. How it is not for us to explain. The fact is patent. They are but shallow reasoners, who insinuate, it is incredible that one act of defection could have led to the ruin of a world. Among all nations the most gigantic events have often sprung from a word, a circumstance. The most dwarfish conception which the soul originates creates a legion of others. It is impossible not to see that the history of the first transgression is the history of every sin. Experience amply testifies that when a sinful thought has once gained dominion over the faculties, no one can prognosticate to what misery it may lead. Sin leaps like flame through all the chambers of the soul. God's government is an embodiment of His own infinite rectitude, and its laws must be enforced. Therefore He drove out the man, and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims and a flaming sword, which burned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. Sin having invaded our world, shame, sorrow, disease, and death followed in its train. Paradise may have retained its loveliness and magnificence for a while, but to man it was lost. It may have been perpetuated as a memento of former happiness, and possibly the scene of over-awing splendour, at its entrance was the presence of the Lord from which Cain is said to have departed. From that period until now creation has groaned and travailed in pain. Man has ever wrestled with his bondage, and longed for emancipation. He may not know Him who alone can break his fetters; he may spurn the holiness which leads to deliverance; but in all lands and ages the sighing of the prisoner has been heard. Grievously, however, as we have sinned, heaven has not forsaken us. We have to go We have forth to toil and suffer. to carry within us the sentence of death; but God has given us songs in the night. Enigmatical as the first promise was, Adam could not but feel that mercy had come to his help,-that the purposes of the tempter would be frustrated, and that one mighty to save, travailing in the greatness of His strength, would bring peace, and joy, and life to the world. The visible image of the invisible God, the brightness of His Father's glory, entered on His mediatorial work the moment the promise was made, and during the progress of the ages, we see Him diffusing the light of truth through the minds of men, quickening them into spiritual vitality, making them walk through the earth as pilgrims and sojourners, heirs to an inheritance beyond the stars, and giving them nobility of character corresponding with the grandeur of their destiny. The Redeemer is now the Tree The Redeemer is now the Tree of Life. 43 It of Life.' It would not be difficult | its radiance high up as far as to show that the existence of all the throne of God. It has rewhich appertains to this earth is purely owing to the mediatorial scheme; but we have to do with life in its highest form-life allying us to the 'living ones' who are before the throne, and qualifying us for everlasting fellowship with Him who is the grand fountain of all life. manded to their dungeon myriads of perplexing doubts, foreboding fears, and thieving sorrows. has made the feeble strong, the timid bold. On beds of pain, on the battle field, amid the dashing and the roaring of the ocean waves, on the rack and in the flames, it has inspired the soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory. We cannot now discuss the great question how Christ becomes the life of men. It is sufficient for our purpose to state, that in addition to the heavenly truths He has revealed, He has removed all impediments to our re-union with God-has brought to bear on the human soul an agency by which its dormant powers are quickened into vigorous and holy action, and has presented His own life as the grand model life. When He ascended on high the results of His achievements began more visibly to appear. In the valley of dry bones scenes were witnessed to which no parallel could be found in the history of man. The word of the Lord was with power. ; Men in all lands have sought to re-vivify themselves and diffuse vitality through the body politic, but their attempts have been productive of no better results than those which accompany the application of galvanism to a corpse. Man knew not man, knew not God, and as ages moved him further from the disclosures of primitive times, the darkness of his soul grew more and more appalling. Illumination and life were known only, where access could be had to the 'Tree of Life.' The most careful examination of the brightest era of the Roman empire discloses a mere scene of degradation and dark despair. Intellect shone with a brilliancy it had never done before but this very brilliancy only served to reveal more fully the density of the gloom in which it was morally and spiritually compelled to grope. The Great Prophet of the world came, and light sprung up in darkness. I am, said He, the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. No earthly pomp marked His coming, but the works of His hands, the love of His heart, the utterances of His lips, proved Him to be the Holy One of God. His voice could not be heard in the streets, but it was the still small voice of the Divinity, announcing truths, which traversing down the ages, have resuscitated millions of souls, and are destined to renovate the world. I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Brief as this passage is, it contains a universe of thought. While dispelling the gloom of death it throws There was a noise, and a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone, and lo! the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above. And the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up, upon their feet an exceeding great_army. You, saith the Apostle to the Ephesians, hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love, wherewith He loved us, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Society as well as individual man began to feel the pulsations of a new life.. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made to every man according as he had need. nor Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor thieves, covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Many of the primitive Christians had but crude and partial notions of Divine truth; but the vital power of Christianity entered their hearts, and produced lives so elevated and superhuman as to fill with astonishment the keenest and most fastidious observers. Heaven's Spirit was in them, and it raised them above all earthly sorrows, and made them jubilant in the presence of the most cruel deaths. They rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake. To a very large extent the virtues which appeared with such living power, in such men as Paul, were reproduced in hundreds of others. Men of demonlike passions were subdued and made to sit with teachable and loving hearts at the feet of Jesus. Wild barbarians were tamed, raised to the dignity of manhood, adorned with the graces of the Spirit. The history of Christianity in all ages and climes has been the history of power, and power ever opposed by all that is human and infernal, marching silently along and gaining victories, the full magnitude of which as to their moral and spiritual results, the records of eternity alone can unravel. The glory of the God of Israel has come from the way of the east, and the earth has shined with its effulgence. The tree of life is in our midst, and all we need is to partake of its fruit. It is this alone which can heal the maladies of the world. The development of intellect is good. Political reform may be good. Organizations for the suppression of vice are good. Nothing, however, but the life of God can emancipate humanity from its fetters. Let the heart beat in unison with God's heart, and selfishness, rapacity, sensualism, and cruelty will give up the ghost,-but not before. ness. devout Very often the complaint is heard in our churches of spiritual deadWere this complaint the language of deep humiliation, of penitential sorrow, and longing after a higher conformity to the Holy One, the heart would with praise. Unfortunately (while it soon be filled with joy and the mouth is in almost all cases an announcement of personal guilt and shame) it is too frequently the utterance of unhappy, querulous, and disaffected for life on mere cordials and stimuspirits. Churches depend too much lants. Christ is our life. If we live on Him we cannot but feel the invigorating power of His grace. Oh when shall we fully recognize this momentous fact? Then and then only shall we be able to march to the conquest of the world. Equipment for the conflict can never be obtained through any mechanism of external appliances; but by the indwelling of the Son of God. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. The full bearing of the life of God in the soul on the present position and future destiny of man will appear first from the fact that it elevates our entire being. The intellect no longer fixes its eye on the visible, but raises it to the contemplation of Him who is all and in all. He becomes the chief good to the soul. The glory of all else is eclipsed by the inconceivable splendour of His nature. Faith lays hold on Him. Love clings to Him. Hope anticipates a nearer and brighter vision. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shines into our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The union of the heart with the attributes of the Most High gives it a power it never felt before-the power of overcoming the world,of ascending heavenward. We now yield our members servants to righteousness unto holiness. Now commences that mighty change in The Blessings of the Life of God in the Soul. 45 the body which the resurrection is | war and our fingers to fight? As to consummate. The Redeemer our day so our strength is. The dwelt in human flesh, and with a world is a scene of perpetual revobody hallowed by a life of spotless lutions. Affliction and death are purity, ascended to His father evermore invading our and our father as the great pattern homes; but He in whom we trust earthly of what He intends us to be. lives and changes not. Dark and mysterious as may be some of our sorrows, they are all visitations of mercy. Through suffering we are made perfect like the Captain of our salvation. We rise to a brighter atmosphere through our very trials, and are led to long for our home on high, where an eternity of peace and joy awaits us. The deliverance of the spirit from the deadly power of sin brings freedom to the bodily organization. The connection between body and mind is now so intimate that they necessarily act and re-act on each other. As the body is the medium of our acquaintance with all that is visible, the deliverance of this medium from what demoralizes and sensualizes it, must give clearness and purity to our mental perceptions. To say there are men who bear the Christian name, who know but little of this change, is, in point of fact, simply to say that they know but little of the regenerating power of Christianity. The universe assumes a different aspect to Him in whom the Divine Spirit is enthroned. Nature is the workmanship of His father. Providence is controlled by His father, who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, and hastens the accomplishment of purposes the mightiest and noblest. The material organs become trained to watch the operations and obey the behests of God, and are gradually prepared for the final transformation, when the corruptible shall put on incorruption, and the mortal shall put on immortality. Life in Christ secures His ever constant presence. My presence shall go with thee, is a promise which every moment is being fulfilled. The light of His countenance irradiates the wilderness, and there have been seasons when we have seen heaven opened, and the Son of Man, our friend, our brother, our representative, our forerunner, sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Enemies we must have; but who or what can harm him whose God is the Lord ? When He giveth quietness, who can cause trouble? Does He not teach our hands to The full development of spiritual life includes all which the heart and intellect can wish, both present and future. Because I live ye shall live also, is the language of the risen Saviour. We now feel that the problem of our being is to be solved in the upper sanctuary. When the cold hand of death is upon us, and when for a time we put off this our tabernacle, we shall shout the song of triumph, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Scenes of surpassing glory will rise on the vision. Beings of resplendent forms will accompany us home. Thoughts which no mortal tongue can utter will enchant the soul. I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may be also. The budding of the flower but partially reveals its full beauty. It does not yet appear what we shall be. Think of the mental powers rising higher and higher in their contemplation of the Infinite One. Think of the immensity, the magnitude of the objects which will stand before their gaze. Think of the information which beings of higher intelligence may communicate to us. Think of our entire and eternal freedom from sin, and from all which can distress the mind. Think of our associates, the nobility of the creation. Think of the august presence in which we shall dwell. For ever with the Lord. The last enemy shall have been swallowed up in victory. The mediatorial scheme shall have unfolded its full splendour, and the |